What a Sweet Potato

Paxton had a therapy session scheduled for this afternoon. He would be working on oral feedings today. Susanne had planned on adding in a new food since he had been doing so well with the apples and bananas. She thought that she should try a vegetable this time. She had plenty of sweet potatoes so it seemed like an appropriate next choice. Susanne loved sweet potatoes and she hoped that Paxton would too. She thought that out of all of her choices that this would be one of the tastiest vegetable since it was naturally sweet. It was also the vegetable with the most bang for its buck as far as nutrition went.

Susanne couldn't wait to use her Beaba Baby Cook Baby Food Maker. She could not only steam the sweet potato, but also puree it when it was fully cooked. It was very easy to use and worked relatively quickly in turning out the finished product. Susanne was shocked with how many servings she got out of cooking just one sweet potato. She could freeze whatever she wasn't going to use over the next few days and thaw it out whenever she was running low. It was all around a great little appliance. Making all of Paxton's food would definitely save her lots of money in the long run.

Paxton's therapy appointment went well. Paxton gagged and vomited with the third taste of bananas. It appeared that bananas were not Paxton's favorite anymore despite him being a monkey. They continued on once Paxton recovered to see if he would do better with a different food. He still seemed to do okay with the apples. They were actually at the top of his list. Closer to the end of the session, Susanne introduced the sweet potatoes for the first time. Initially, the therapist thought that the consistency of the puree was accurate, but Paxton thought otherwise. The sweet potatoes were still a little too thick for his liking. He couldn't quite figure out how to get the new orange goo off of his upper gums. He immediately panicked and started to gag. He tried to help himself recover by placing his hand under his jaw to force it closed. It appeared to help him swallow. Susanne thinned out the sweet potatoes by adding some warm water. Once she did this, he was able to handle them much better.

Susanne was informed by the therapist that she should take note of the response that Paxton has with every food. She needed to offer him each food at least ten separate times to get a true idea of whether he liked it or not. If he had more negative responses out of the ten attempts, then she should eliminate it from his diet for the time being. This seemed like sage advice.

Susanne decided to clean up the house some while Paxton took his afternoon nap. He slept right through his next two feedings. This actually gave Susanne some time to cook herself some dinner. Susanne had been craving hamburgers for the last few days. She decided to make them despite not being able to add cheese. She tried to spruce them up with lots of different seasonings and add a variety of toppings. Unfortunately, nothing quite made it taste as good as cheese. This had continued to be one of the hardest things that she had eliminated from her diet. It made it extra difficult coming from a family that ate cheese by the block regularly. There was no denying that cheese made everything better.

Susanne had no idea that this had been somewhat of the calm before the storm. Paxton woke up crying right as Susanne sat down to eat her dinner. He always seemed to have perfect timing. For some reason, he had trouble settling down for the rest of the evening. He would sleep for a short time and then wake up uncomfortable. Hopefully, this was just a one time thing. She had a hard enough time getting enough sleep with just his intense feeding schedule. She didn't need anything else added to the mix.